Temporary closure until after Chinese New Year

I am temporarily closing the blog,  until after Chinese New Year  - i.e. until Feb 2017.  I'll keep tweeting and sharing links to Facebook, though, so keep an eye on those accounts, if you can, and I do hope you check out the blog when it re-opens. Thanks, Rosie. 

Highlights of Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2016 By Lucía Damacela

The thirteenth edition of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, one of Southeast Asia’s leading literary events, concluded this October 30^th. Over five days, around 170 authors, artists and performers from more than 20 countries took centre stage, the largest contingent being from Indonesia and Australia.

Published Today: Intruder In Mao’s Realm by Richard Kirkby

Intruder In Mao’s Realm, by British academic Richard Kirkby, provides an insider’s view of China in the final throes of the Cultural Revolution and its immediate aftermath.  

Social Sunday

Sundays used to be for lounging with the papers, now they are just as likely for lounging with iPads. So if you're lazily clicking around looking for something to read, here are a few suggestions, focussing on what's going on lit-wise in Asia.

(Inter)National Novel Writing Month

Part writing boot camp, part rollicking party, this November USA-based National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which is actually an international event, celebrates its 18th year of encouraging novelists to get cracking, through the largest writing event in the world.

Indie spotlight: Tabby Stirling

Indie Spotlight is Siobhan Daiko’s monthly column on self-publishing. This month Siobhan offers a platform to indie author Tabby Stirling.

Tabby now lives in Scotland with her husband, two children and a beagle, but she was previously an expat in Singapore. She has had several flash and short stories published in Spelk fiction, Camroc Fiction Press, Literary Orphans, Mslexia and others.

Tabby recently signed with Unbound, a UK-based literary crowdfunding publisher, for her novel Blood on the Banana Leaf. This shines a light on the maid abuse that came to her attention whilst she was living in Singapore. It explores how women cope in the most demeaning of circumstances.

Over to Tabby…

The Sellout by Paul Beatty wins Man Booker Prize for Fiction

The Sellout by Paul Beatty  has won the 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The Sellout is published by small independent publisher Oneworld, who had their first win in 2015 with Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings.

Questions & answers: Alexandra Curry

About Alexandra Curry: Alexandra is a Canadian-born author of Austrian and British parentage. She has lived in Asia, including in Singapore and Taiwan, in Europe, and in Canada. Her current home is in the United States. She says: “No doubt about it, my background has been shaped by several cultures, and the way I see the world is very much informed by the way these cultures have blended together for me.” She has worked as a teacher, model, banker and accountant.  The Courtesan is her first novel.

Just quickly...

I'm very pleased that The Elephant Bar, a short story I wrote for Illustrated London News / Raffles Magazine  is now online.  Never mind the words, I LOVE the illustrations. Click here to see them! The story is set in colonial-era Siem Reap, and concerns an ingénue mixing it with a mysterious Russian photographer...

Sunday Social

Sundays used to be for lounging with the papers, now they are just as likely for lounging with iPads. So if you're lazily clicking around looking for something to read, here are a few suggestions, focussing on what's going on lit-wise in Asia.

Asia Literary Review and English PEN

English PEN in association with the Asia Literary Review has just announced a terrific opportunity for translators and writers in East and South-East Asia - a new translation project and award, PEN Presents East and South-East Asia.

Social Sunday

Sundays used to be for lounging with the papers, now they are just as likely for lounging with iPads. So if you're lazily clicking around looking for something to read, here are a few suggestions, focussing on what's going on lit-wise in Asia.

Karachi Literature Festival travels to London

To celebrate 70 years of Pakistan’s creation, Pakistan’s biggest literary event, the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) produced by Oxford University Press (OUP), will be launched in London on 20 May 2017 at the Southbank Centre, as part of their annual Alchemy festival. KLF London promises to be a vibrant celebration of Pakistani literature and arts, providing a fantastic opportunity for Londoners to gain an insight into the country’s complex history and culture.

500 words from Graham Sage

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Polyglot Graham Sage divides his time between London, China and France. His previous books include an English-language primer for use in China, and the French-language novel Les tribulations de J. Alfred Prufrock au pays des moas géants. In November, he will publish The Phoenix and the Crow, his first novel in English.

The Phoenix and the Crow is a tale of morality and corruption in present-day small-town China. Wang Bin a young teacher and ornithologist from Beijing travels to Pingyang, a small town nestled in the mountains between Sichuan and Hunan. His aim is to photograph the mountain phoenix, a rare bird with a blaze of rich colours that has never before been captured on film.

Wang Bin soon crosses paths with Pingyang’s, chief of police, a cruel man who rules with an iron fist. The chief of police tries to drive Wang Bin permanently out of town. But Wang Bin is falling in love with Xiao Zhou, a pretty receptionist at the seedy hotel where he’s been staying. Wang Bin, Xiao Zhou and other townsfolk concoct a plan to rid Pingyang of its dreadful chief of police – a plan so far-fetched all agree it might just work.

So, Over to Graham…

Social Sunday

Sundays used to be for lounging with the papers, now they are just as likely for lounging with iPads. So if you're lazily clicking around looking for something to read, here are a few suggestions, focussing on what's going on lit-wise in Asia.

International Translation Day

Sept 30 is International Translation Day. Read a book translated from an Asian language this week!

Indie spotlight: J. W. Durrah

Indie Spotlight is Siobhan Daiko’s monthly column on self-publishing. This month Siobhan talks to indie author J. W. Durrah 

J. W. Durrah published his first short story, Something to Remember, in Essence magazine in 1972. An American, he has travelled widely in Asia, and he drew on his experiences when writing his debut novel Jacob The Jew Vs. The Chinese Blood, which was published in July, through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. A detective thriller, it is the first in a planned series featuring NYPD detective Jacob Jennings.

When Jennings signs on for a three-year tour with the US Army’s Military Intelligence unit, he expects to be deployed to Vietnam like his father before him. Instead, he finds himself in Hong Kong, working a complex undercover sting in cooperation with the Chinese police. Along the way he encounters Jerry Baofung, a much-feared sorcerer, with links to the trade in illegal drugs.

Social Sunday

Sundays used to be for lounging with the papers, now they are just as likely for lounging with iPads. So if you're lazily clicking around looking for something to read, here are a few suggestions, focussing on what's going on lit-wise in Asia.

500 words from Arthur Meursault

500 words from…is an occasional series in which authors discuss their newly published books. Here Arthur Meursault, a long-term Asia expat, talks about Party Members, which satirises the contemporary Chinese attitude that to get rich is glorious, no matter who gets hurt in the process.

Deep within the heart of China, far from the glamour of Shanghai and Beijing, lies the every-city of Huaishi. This worker’s paradise of smog and concrete is home to Party Member Yang Wei, a mediocre man in a mediocre job. His life of bureaucratic monotony is shattered by an encounter with the advanced consumer goods he has long been deprived of. Aided by the cynical and malicious advice of an unlikely mentor, Yang Wei embarks on a journey of greed, corruption, and murder that takes him to the diseased underbelly of Chinese society. 

So, over to Arthur…

Lion City Lit This Is Not a Safety Barrier / Lucía Damacela

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Lion City Lit explores what is going on in the City-State lit-wise. Here Lucía Damacela attends the launch of This Is Not a Safety Barrier, a collection of 113 Singapore-inspired poems and photos from 69 contributors. This Is Not a Safety Barrier, edited by Marc Nair and Yen Phang, offers commentary that questions and challenges the physical and symbolic barriers erected in Singapore, a place constantly under construction. It is published by  Ethos Books.

Lion City Lit: Uncle Rajah’s Flying Carpet Show

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Here Raelee Chapman talks to Dr Chris Mooney-Singh an Australian writer, poet, musician and performance artist who has lived and worked in Singapore for a number of years, and who has made his mark on the City-State as an all-round arts entrepreneur.

Man Booker shortlist and housekeeping.

Man Booker have announced their shortlist for the 2016 prize. Click here. Do Not Say We have Nothing, by Madeleine Thien, published by Granta, has made the cut.

In Canada in 1991, ten-year-old Marie and her mother invite a guest into their home: a young woman called Ai-Ming, who has fled China in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square protests. 

Ai-Ming tells Marie the story of her family in Revolutionary China - from the crowded teahouses in the first days of Chairman Mao’s ascent to the Shanghai Conservatory in the 1960s and the events leading to the Beijing demonstrations of 1989.  It is a story of revolutionary idealism, music, and silence, in which three musicians - the shy and brilliant composer Sparrow, the violin prodigy Zhuli, and the enigmatic pianist Kai - struggle during China’s relentless Cultural Revolution to remain loyal to one another and to the music they have devoted their lives to.  Forced to re-imagine their artistic and private selves, their fates reverberate through the years, with deep and lasting consequences for Ai-Ming – and for Marie.

Less loftily, I will now post the main weekly post on Fridays, not Thursdays...

Buy a Book, Give a Book / Jennie Orchard

As promised yesterday, here is a post on promoting literacy in Asia, to tie in with UNESCO's International Literacy Day. It's from Jennie Orchard, of the Hong Kong chapter of Room to Read, the US-based non-profit organisation for improving literacy and gender equality in education in low-income countries. 

Returning from summer....

The sharp-eyed / sharp-memoried / keen amongst you may have noticed the blog is reopening after the summer break a day later than I said it would - that's because I was flying yesterday. So I missed the 50th edition of UNESCO's International Literacy Day. Apologies. Over the coming week, I hope to have a couple of posts on promoting literacy in Asia.

Closing for August / happy reading

The blog is now closed for August. It will reopen on World Literacy Day, Thursday September 8th. 

To those in the northern hemisphere: happy summer reading! 

To those in the southern hemisphere: happy August reading! 

Lion City Lit: Quarterly Literary Review Singapore

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Here Lucía Damacela continues her occasional series of conversations with founders and editors of Singapore-based online literary magazines. Today, the focus is on the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, (QLRS), the longest- running online literary magazine in the country.

500 words from Quincy Carroll

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Quincy Carroll is a writer from Massachusetts. After graduating from college in 2007, he moved to Hunan, China, for three years. He currently works at a school in Oakland, California. He published his debut novel Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside through Inkshares, a crowd-funding platform.  Here he talks about how crowd-funding got his novel off the ground.

500 words from Jeffrey Wasserstrom

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Jeffrey Wasserstrom is an American historian of modern China who teaches at the University of California, Irvine. He edited a fantastic new reference book, the Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China. Here he talks about selecting the illustrations.

Classics corner: A Pail of Oysters, by Vern Sneider

Asian Books Blog generally covers new books, but in this new series, classics corner, guest writers will introduce older titles you may like to read. Jonathan Benda kicks off the series by discussing A Pail of Oysters, by Vern Sneider

A day in the life of Michael Cannings

A day in the life of…is an occasional series in which people working in the publishing industry talk about their typical working day. Here, Michael Cannings, one of the founders of Camphor Press, a British-Taiwanese publishing house specialising in books about East Asia, in particular Taiwan, explains there is in fact no typical working day in his life…

Indie Spotlight: Marco Lobo

Indie Spotlight is Siobhan Daiko’s monthly column on self-publishing. This month she talks to indie author Marco Lobo.

Lion City Lit: Q & A with Eric Tinsay Valles,

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column, Lion City Lit, explores in-depth what's happening in the City-State lit-wise. Here, Elissa Viornery interviews Eric Tinsay Valles, Festival Director of the National Poetry Festival (NPF). This will run from July 29 to 31 at the National Museum, Lasalle College of the Arts, and other venues. 

Guest post: Alec Ash

Beijing-based Alec Ash has just published Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China (Picador) a vivid account of young people in China – people born after Mao, with no memory of Tiananmen – seen through the lens of six millennials’ lives. Dahai is a military child and netizen; Fred is a daughter of the Party. Lucifer is an aspiring superstar; Snail a country migrant addicted to online games. Xiaoxiao is a hipster from the freezing north; Mia a rebel from Xinjiang in the far west. They are the offspring of the one-child policy, and they face fierce competition to succeed: pressure starts young; their road isn't easy. Through their stories, Wish Lanterns shows with empathy and insight the challenges and dreams that will define China's future – but at the same time their stories are those of young people all over the world. They are moving out of home, starting careers, falling in love...

Q & A: Xu Xi

Xu Xi 許素細  is the author of ten books, most recently the novels That Man In Our Lives (C&R Press, September 2016) and Habit of a Foreign Sky (Haven Books, 2010), a finalist for the Man Asian Literary Prize; the story collection Access Thirteen Tales (Signal 8 Press, 2011).  Forthcoming books include Interruptions (Hong Kong University Museum & Art Gallery, September, 2016), a collaborative ekphrastic essay collection in conversation with photography by David Clarke; a memoir Elegy for HK (Penguin China/Australia, 2017) and Insignificance: Stories of Hong Kong (Signal 8 Press, 2018).  She has also edited four anthologies of Hong Kong writing in English.  Since 2002, she has taught for low-residency MFA programs, including at Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Montpelier where she was elected and served as faculty chair, and at City University of Hong Kong where she was appointed Writer-in-Residence and founded and directed Asia’s first low-residency MFA.  From January to May, 2016, she was Distinguished Visiting Writer-in-Residence at Arizona State University’s Virginia G. Piper Center of Creative Writing.  She is also co-founder, with author Robin Hemley, of Authors At Large, offering international writing retreats and workshops.  A Chinese-Indonesian Hong Kong permanent resident and U.S. citizen, she currently lives between New York and Hong Kong.

Lion City lit notes: June 25 launch of Tales of Two Cities

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Lion City lit notes provide quick updates between columns. By Lucia Damacela

June 25: Launch of Tales of Two Cities: Singapore and Hong Kong 

Tales of Two Cities is an anthology that comprises twenty three short stories in which writers from The Singapore Writers Group and the Hong Kong Writers Circle introduce their respective cities to the readers. Told from a variety of unexpected angles, the stories are grouped by theme: the changing city; the historical city; the mystical city; the capricious city. Published by Ethos Books, Tales of Two Cities will be launched at Kinokuniya (Ngee Ann City, Orchard Road) on Saturday June 25, from 4 to 5. A review of the book was previously published in this blog. Authors from The Singapore Writers Group will read excerpts and answer questions about their stories and about the process of putting the collection together. There will be a lucky draw and authors will sign copies of the book.This event is open to the public. Admission is free.

Bookish Asia / John Grant Ross

Bookish Asia is a wonderful site I’ve recently discovered; it features book reviews and author interviews focussing on books about East Asia categorised by country, or region. Here one of the founders, John Grant Ross, provides a profile of the site.

The Sunday Post: suspended over summer

The Sunday Post will be suspended from now until mid Sept as I'm travelling quite a lot over the summer, and while I'm flitting here and there I'm sure I'll only be able to manage 1 post per week. New posts will generally go up each Thursday. Thanks for reading Asian Books Blog. 

Q & A: Lisa Beazley

Lisa Beazley is a Singapore-based expat who has just brought out her first novel, Keep Me Posted. The protagonist, Cassie, is close to her sister, Sid. Cassie has a great husband, but for much of the novel she fails to realise it. She lives in New York. Meanwhile Sid has a horrible husband, and she fairly quickly realises it.  She lives in Singapore. The sisters share all their secrets in traditional, pen-and-paper letters. But Cassie scans them, and stores them online. Alas, she gets her privacy settings wrong, and so anybody can view them.  Private letters as public property? All hell breaks loose…

So: over to Lisa …

Lion City Lit: Swag

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Here Lucía Damacela continues her series investigating Singapore online literary magazines by highlighting new kid on the block, Swag.

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Indie Spotlight: email lists

Indie Spotlight is Siobhan Daiko’s monthly column on self-publishing. This month she advises indie authors on the importance of maintaining an email list.

Lion City Lit: Marion Kleinschmidt and Coill.net

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Here Raelee Chapman talks to Marion Kleinschmidt.

Marion a native of Bavaria, but now dividing her time between the USA and Singapore, is the founder  of Coill.net  which provides dynamic, bootcamp-style online courses to help writers of all levels to lift their game. She here discusses her upcoming Singapore-based hands-on writing retreat, and the writing scene in Singapore in general. Marion has worked for the last 12 years as freelance copywriter, editor, translator and creative writing coach. A prolific member of Singapore Writers Group, she has published short fiction in Germany and Singapore. She started to run highly successful writing retreats in Bintan and Batam last year. 

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

500 words from Brian Stoddart

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Here Brian Stoddart, an Australian academic who worked in Malaysia in the 1990s, talks about A Straits Settlement the latest in his Superintendent Le Fanu series of crime novels, set in the colonial-era of the 1920s, and published by Hong Kong based Crime Wave Press.

A Straits Settlement, the third book in the series, following A Madras Miasma and The Pallampur Predicament, both set in south India, sees Superintendent Le Fanu promoted to Inspector-General of Police, and broadens his geographical horizons across the Bay of Bengal into the British-controlled Straits Settlements, where for the first time he encounters Chinese and Malay cultures. As soon as he arrives he becomes entangled with Chinese secret societies and the British colonial intelligence services. Not to mention the mysterious Chinese woman who causes him to wonder about the British imperial future.

So, over to Brian…

The Sunday Post / Imprint Cover

The Sunday Post is suspended this week, but here is the cover of Imprint, the annual anthology from Hong Kong WiPS - see the previous post for details!

Women in Publishing Hong Kong by Sarah Merrill Mowat

Women in Publishing (WiPS) is an international organisation working to promote the status of women working in publishing and related trades by helping them to develop their careers. Sarah Merrill Mowat is vice president of the Hong Kong chapter, and also coordinator of Imprint, HK WiPS’ annual anthology of members’ writing.  Here Sarah talks about the advantages of joining WiPS, and the latest issue of Imprint, which was published in April.

Lion City Lit: Me Migrant by Mohammed Mukul Hossine (transcreated by Cyril Wong)

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Here Bhavani Krishnamurthy reports on the launch of Me Migrant, a collection of poetry from Mohammed Mukul Hossine, who was awarded a degree in the social sciences in his native Bangladesh, but who now works in Singapore as a construction worker by day, and as a poet by night. Cyril Wong, the established Singaporean poet, was the transcreator. Me Migrant was published on May 1, International Labour Day, by Ethos Books.

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

500 words from Mike Stoner

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Here UK-based Mike Stoner talks about his novel Jalan Jalan, set in Indonesia. He initially self-published, but after Jalan Jalan was noticed by the prestigious UK newspaper, the Guardian, and awarded its monthly prize for the best self-published novel, it was picked up by the conventional publisher, Tuttle, which specialises in books linking East and West.

Lion City Lit: Softblow

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Our regular column Lion City Lit explores in-depth what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Here Lucía Damacela launches an occasional series highlighting Singapore online literary magazines. She’ll be talking to founders and editors about the workings of their respective magazines: In this first installment, her focus is on Softblow.

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Indie spotlight: Victor Cunrui Xiong

Indie Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month Siobhan Daiko interviews Victor Cunrui Xiong, Professor of History, with a special interest in Asian history, at Western Michigan University, USA, and author of the historical novel Heavenly Khan.

Heavenly Khan is based on the story of Li Shimin (also known as Tang Taizong), the second emperor of the Tang dynasty, and arguably the greatest sovereign in Chinese history.  He grew up in a world of devastating upheaval that tore China apart, and he found himself thrust into the role of a military commander in his father’s rebel army while still a teenager. He proved himself to be a great military genius, vanquishing all his enemies on the battlefield. As emperor, ruling from 626 to 649 CE, he was open-minded. He encouraged critical suggestions by his court officials, which he often adopted, and he lent support to Buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity. The international prestige he won for Tang China was so high that the states of Central and North Asia honored him with the title of ‘Heavenly Khan.’

500 words from MJ Lee

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Here MJ Lee, a Briton who has lived in London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai, and who now splits his time between the UK and Asia, talks about his Inspector Danilov series.  These crime novels, set in the Shanghai of the 1920s and 1930s, feature as the sleuths Inspector Pyotr Danilov, a Russian, and his half-Scottish half-Chinese sidekick, Detective Sergeant Strachan. Martin chose to set his novels in Shanghai, between the two world wars, because it was in his opinion, the perfect location for any murder - a city of shadows, where death, decadence and debauchery stalked the art deco streets.

The Sunday Post (Shakespeare edition)

Shakespeare is surely the world's most global playwright? Yesterday, Saturday, April 23, marked the 400th anniversary of his death, and so all this past week I've been posting and sharing relevant links,with a focus on Shakespeare in Asia. Today, in the last of the week's posts, a round-up of coverage of the anniversary from the UK press, plus the final daily Shakespeare Twitter spot.

Shakespeare week: Sat April 23

Shakespeare is surely the world's most global playwright? Today, Saturday, April 23, marks the 400th anniversary of his death, and so all this week I've been posting and sharing relevant links,with a focus on Shakespeare in Asia. Today, though links to sites from leading Western libraries and from the British Council. All are well-worth clicking around.

Shakespeare week: Friday

The Taming of the Shrew staged in Korea

Shakespeare is surely the world's most global playwright? Tomorrow, Saturday, April 23, marks the 400th anniversary of his death, and so all this week I've been posting and sharing relevant links - with a focus on Shakespeare in Asia. 

Shakespeare week: Thursday

A Midsummer Night's Dream staged in Beijing

Shakespeare is surely the world's most global playwright? Saturday, April 23, marks the 400th anniversary of his death, and so all this week I'm posting and sharing relevant links - with a focus on Shakespeare in Asia. Today, Shakespeare (Shashibiya) in China, a competition, and the daily Shakespeare Twitter spot.

Shakespeare week: Wednesday

Shakespeare is surely the world's most global playwright? Saturday, April 23, marks the 400th anniversary of his death, and so all this week I'll be posting and sharing relevant links - with a focus on Shakespeare in Asia. Today, two books on the influence of Shakespeare on Japanese theatre traditions, and a competition inspired by the Goodreads Shakespeare week.

Shakespeare week: Tuesday

Shakespeare is surely the world's most global playwright? Saturday, April 23, marks the 400th anniversary of his death, and so all this week I'll be posting and sharing relevant links - with a focus on Shakespeare in Asia. Today, a fantastic online video and performance archive from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT Global Shakespeares.

It's a really interesting site to explore. 

For India click here.

For East and Southeast Asia click here.

Daily Shakespeare Twitter spot
I can't find any Twitter accounts linked to MIT Global Shakespeares, so today's suggested account is #Shakespeare.